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Honestly record how you reacted to stock market gyrations of the past two weeks. It will give you a meaningful measure of how well you can stomach future investment risks.

Before taking on new clients, many brokers and investment advisers ask them to fill out a risk tolerance questionnaire. It includes questions like: “What is the minimum annual return you would like this portfolio to deliver?” “Can you accept the possibility that a particular investment in your portfolio may never pay off?” and “Would you be comfortable if your portfolio lost 10% in a given year?” Their goal is to understand how well clients can stomach a loss of principal—even if it’s only temporary and even if it’s just on paper.

For a more accurate reading, think back to how you spent the weekend after the S&P downgraded U.S. government debt, or how you reacted to the subsequent news that stocks had lost 15% of their value in just two and a half weeks. If you envisioned yourself as a bag lady (or man), poised at the edge of a precipice, or never able to retire, you might want to rethink how you’ve divvied up your investments.

Most advisers will tell you to diversify -- distribute investment capital across various asset classes, each of which may behave differently at a particular time. In theory, that reduces your dependence on how each investment performs, minimizing volatility and maximizing return. The rule of thumb is to subtract your age from 100 and allocate the difference to stocks. The rest can be in some combination of bonds and cash.

Whether the latest meltdown caused you to rethink your asset allocation or you are sticking with the division between bonds and equities that you chose previously, chances are you need to rebalance your portfolio in light of recent events.

Keeping your portfolio balanced requires good record keeping and some discipline, both of which can be burdensome if you manage your own investments. Many brokerage houses show the asset allocation in your accounts there – you can see them online or in monthly statements. Unless you pay the financial institution to manage the investments, these accounts won't rebalance automatically. But some companies will alert you if the balance shifts from your target goals.